My journey through a career pivot + tips on how to approach one

*My first LinkedIn Article (exciting!) Please note that I left out quite a few details (for length). For more context on my background check out my About / Experience Section. Or send me a DM here!

March will forever be a month for me to reflect on my career...It was around this time in 2020 that everything changed for me, here's why:

I was always fascinated with live events. Building something from scratch, marketing it, and seeing it play out (successfully) brings me a ton of joy. When exploring careers in that space I stumbled upon the job of a music booking agent. So, as a young college student I was fascinated with the idea of working with talented people and helping them deliver world class experiences to their fans and community.

I spent all of college doing everything I could to learn the space. I interned at major agencies CAA and WME, and spent time working for Sony Music as a college rep / interning in touring for Columbia Records. I was so focused on making sure that by the time I graduated I could go plug into any agency and start contributing ASAP. When I graduated, I was hired in the concerts department at ICM Partners (this was January 2020). In that moment, I was thinking that "this is what I've worked for, and I'm going to make it happen here for a long time."

The new year kicks off with a strong start. I’m meeting great people, performing well, and feeling like I made the right moves in college. Then the pandemic hits and we were sent into lockdown 2 months later.

The world flips on its head. I had a feeling early on in the pandemic that I was going to need to make a career pivot (concerts weren’t happening….). So where can I continue doing what I love and growing? The choice was transitioning into digital (after a furlough in Sept 2020). I could still help people connect to their fans and community - it just needed to be virtually. I called around and a friend (shoutout Andre Jones ) put me in touch with a innovative new startup called Jellysmack. Jellysmack was re-purposing and distributing creator-made video content onto multiple social platforms and using tech to accelerate the distribution and optimize the clips (perfect!)

October 2020 I join Jellysmack to help them scale their Creator Program. During this time I consumed everything I could on the creator economy. I followed experts here on LinkedIn that were talking about it, listened to podcasts, and consumed as much creator-made content as I could. I became obsessed with the impact (and influence!) on humanity that the creator economy would have.

One year later, October 2021 I get a message (on LinkedIn) from a recruiter at LinkedIn about a great new team they were building that was focused on helping creators on the platform build community, increase their following, and connect to economic opportunity. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to join a brand-new team at a company like LinkedIn and work on something that could impact countless people---so I took it!

This all goes to say that the pandemic threw a massive wrench in my career plans but ultimately proved to be a very good thing for me. In the moment it seemed like everything was collapsing in on itself. I couldn't stop myself from thinking about all I had done to carefully plan this intentional career path."Now, what am I supposed to do?"

Then I calmed down....and did three things that I believe really helped:

1. I took a good hard look at my transferrable skills. I didn't say “oh I only know how to book concerts." I said, “oh I know how to draft agreements, coordinate between multiple parties, track and handle money, etc." There are a lot of roles that are built upon the same skillset. You likely already have many if not all of the skills for another role that's not even in your same industry. You just need to break out each skill, analyze them individually, and then figure out what other rolls do that.
2. Before I even started applying all over the place I called my 5-10 closest professional contacts and filled them in on my desire to explore the creator space, and asked if they knew of any exciting companies hiring or could point me in the direction of someone who could. Lean on your network!
3. Finally, I realized that if you lost a “dream job” the job itself wasn’t a dream job but how the job made you feel was the dream. For me I loved touring/concerts because I loved the feeling of bringing people together to experience something. That’s what makes a job a dream job for me but it doesn't have to be through a concert (light bulb moment for me). I found the same passion when helping creators reach more audiences at Jellysmack. And the same thing here at LinkedIn with helping creators build their communities and connect to opportunity. This has helped me analyze what I want out of my career and not get tunnel vision on a "perceived/expected career path."

So, when experiencing a layoff, global pandemic, or anything else that disrupts the "perfect career path," always bring it back to why do you like what you do? But not the actual role itself…why do you really like what you do? I’m sure you can find other jobs that answer that why, and it could be in a totally different industry. And if you don't like what you do and are going in the opposite direction then think of what you want to do.

You don't need to think so specifically either "well Cayman I don't know exactly what role I want I just want something better..." think bigger! Do you want to help people, be creative, bring people together, just make a ton of money? What's the underlying big picture thing that will bring you joy and then work backwards from there on what job can help you do that.

Don’t get tunnel vision and don’t think everything is over. Stay calm and collected, go back to your “why” and your skills, and from there you can move into your next role.

I hope this is helpful to anyone going through a difficult career moment right now or thinks that they can’t pivot.

I’m writing this reflecting from NYC..that’s right NYC! If you would have told this LA native that I’d be living in NYC and doing the work I'm doing now, I’d never believe you (and I honestly still don’t believe it).

The pandemic forever altered the start of my career trajectory, and impacted billions of lives. But while the world was changing every day (and still is), I did everything I could to remain constant. I went back to my why and skills and thoughtfully planned out a new path for myself, and I know you can do the same.

Thanks so much for reading! If this helped you, you went through something similar, or have more advice to share on how to handle career pivots let me know in the comments below.